Brooklyn

Cover retrieved from Goodreads

Brooklyn

Colm Tóibín

Scribner: 2009, 262 pages

Reviewed by Sheryl Walters

Eilis Lacey changes her life in the 1950s by leaving her family in a small town in Ireland for work in America.  This coming of age story is set in Brooklyn, New York, and allows the reader to follow Eilis's struggle to fit into society with other immigrants and Americans.  She struggles through being homesick, through her first love, and her friendships with other women.  She makes choices, sometimes that she comes to second guess, but she is strong and lives with her decisions.

P.S. I Still Love You

Cover retrieved from Goodreads

P.S. I Still Love You (To All the Boys I've Loved Before #2)

Jenny Han

Simon & Schuster Books: 2015, 337 pages

Reviewed by Jessie Park

I highly recommend to those interested in this book to start with the first in the series by Jenny Han: To All the Boys I've Loved Before.  This book immediately follows where the first book left off (in a cliff-hanger, by the way) with high school student Laura Jean trying to figure out her feelings with Peter and with another boy from her past who comes back to into her life due to the events from the first book.  These books are a charming coming-of-age series that follows an innocent, family-driven protagonist who deals with love, heartache, the drama of friends and enemies, and figuring out what it means to grow up.